It’s been a while, but my fledgling band the Mosquitoes managed to actually get a New Year’s Eve gig last week. Now before you go thinking we’ve gone and hit the gravy train – well, just don’t. Sure, it was a cool gig but honestly, a couple hundred bucks split 3 ways? Yeah, I think it’s more about the experience at this stage.

But, given the fact that we still mostly suck, I’m pretty happy that we actually have had some chances to strut our stuff, on the odd occasion. Even if the occasions are rather odd, if you get my drift (hopefully you can do a lot with my drift, because if I got around to explaining it, I’d lose you for sure).

Nevertheless, I’m learning some cool new things on guitar, and it’s helping me to look at it differently. Never thought I’d actually hear myself saying that, as I’ve been quite a power chord fiend for a long time, but learning that Texas Flood song was like a light bulb going on in my head. Ah ha! There’s more to the guitar than power chords!

And thus my journey led me to start learning some guitar theory too – mostly from Play Guitar (they’ve got some cool lessons for people who want to learn how to play guitar), but also a few other places as well.

I keep on telling my bass player, Nugget Head (yeah, the nickname stuck), that he’s going to have to learn a bit of theory to keep up with me, now that I’m basically a musical rocket scientist, by comparison. I mean, theory-wise, the guy is still banging two rocks together trying to make a wheel. Doesn’t even know that – well I could go on and on about what he doesn’t know, but you’d get bored of that pretty quick.

Anyhow – that’s the update, because it’s been a while. Maybe next time you hear from me we’ll have graduated to paying, but less odd gigs :-).

So in case you’ve had your head in the sand and have never heard of me before, I play backup guitar in a band called the Mosquitoes. Honestly, we’re not that annoying though. Seriously, the guy who came up with the name has received his share of bzzzzzzzzz noises loudly in his ear in exchange for the favor.

But I digress.

Last weekend we were playing this gig and we get to the song “Texas Flood” which I just love playing. It’s a lot of fun, and actually I learned a few cool tricks from these dudes over at RiffNinja.com who were demonstrating it, or a tune very similar.

I may rock it out, but I know when I need to improve, and I do try to keep learning, mostly online, as much as I can.

(Side note: RiffNinja.com is one of the cooler collections of free guitar lessons that I’ve come across. Check it out.)

So where was I? Right… Texas Flood.

So we’re playing along, and all of a sudden, the bass player literally falls off the stage.

No, he wasn’t drunk, and I honestly don’t know WHAT happened, really.

But one minute he was standing near the edge of the stage, and the next, he was on the floor, with the cord wrapped all around him.

Pretty bizarre.

Anyhow, I’ve never seen that before, so I thought I’d record it for posterity.

And so Nugget Head (yeah, that’s his nickname… now!) won’t ever forget. Haha.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I worked at this job in a factory.

They had this sign that would light up sometimes, saying “Beware Vents Are Open” for two reasons… one, you might fall in if you were being ridiculously un-careful, and two, they blasted hot air out. Hence, if they were open, blasting hot air, and you still fell in, well, you might be better off down there.

Anyhow, starting this blog made me think of that old flashing sign.

There are a lot of things going on in this world that make me want to shout “I’m not taking it anymore!”

And congratulations, dear reader, I’ve chosen this very soapbox as a place to vent a little.

Sure, along the way you’ll probably hear about my various escapades in life, and perhaps the odd boring story from the office photocopier gossip, and maybe a story from one of my Friday night jam sessions, but what I’m saying here is pretty much anything is fair game.

If you’re lucky, maybe I’ll even tell you how I lost 30 pounds in the past year.